A WOMAN whose husband tried to kill her and her baby son has spoken out in a bid to encourage others to seek help.

Police feared the only way 29-year-old Tanya Lockwood would leave her marital home was in a body bag.

The former Kelsall resident and Tarporley High School pupil met the man she was to marry on St Patrick's Day five years ago, when he seemed to be a funny, caring person. In fact, he had been released from prison days before for stabbing his former wife with a potato peeler.

Tanya only found this out two years later when he appeared in court charged with attacking her with a carving knife and attempting to smother their three-week-old son, Oli.

He was jailed for three years for the offences but, under new guidelines for judges, he could have been given a shorter sentence or been sent on a course.

Tanya said: 'It undermines what I had to go through and what Oli had to go through. They would get more time inside for fraud or robbery than for stabbing their wife and children.'

After fleeing the marital home in Lincolnshire, Tanya works with Cheshire County Council helping children affected by domestic violence.

She is keen to offer advice to others suffering domestic abuse.

'There is help and support out there and ways of keeping you safe if you do decide to leave,' she said. 'When you ask for help, they will believe you.' rebecca.taylor@cheshirenews.co.uk